Nigerians have been told that the widespread criticism against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the judiciary over the outcome of the 2023 general elections, tribunal and appeal court rulings in some of the post-election matters, is against the country’s democracy and its survival.
A leading civil society activist, who doubles as the Chairman of Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) and a Board Member of YIAGA Africa, Chief Ezenwa Nwagwu, said this in Abuja on Monday when he addressed journalists over various issues bothering on the outcome of the elections and recent court judgements making the news across the country.
The activist decried the “veiled attacks”, saying those who have choosing the path of criticizing INEC and the judiciary are not doing so out of patriotism or in the interest of improvement but to bring the “institutions into opprobrium”
“Quite a lot of people come into elections with different kinds of emotions, but at the end of the day, we can’t sit back reflect and see at the end of the day, what went well, what didn’t go well. Some of the arguments that we’ll put forward at that time were not popular, and quite a lot of people were thinking, perhaps we were inventing some of those things, but electron has come and gone, and there are lessons that we have learnt.”
He went on to say; “The big issue for me is that after the election, the narrative has shifted from not just criticizing the outcome of the election, but really delegitimizing the election and the institutions that make competitive enterprise important.
“A lot of people have done with INEC and have moved to the judiciary. Now it is about the judiciary is a scam, it is corrupt. That is for those who the judgments didn’t favour. Those the judgments favoured says it is the last hope of the common man.
“But there’s a difference between criticism and attack. An attack is meant to actually bring those institutions into opprobrium, into a place where a lot of people do not have confidence in INEC, do not have confidence in judiciary. And most of the people who do this, do it not out of patriotism. Not out of the need for improvements, but is a veiled attack on democracy in my view.”
He called for a steadfast in investment in confidence building for the electoral and judicial institutions. And added that democracy cannot be compared to military rule or dictatorship.
“It is important therefore that those us who invest in confidence building for these institutions remain steadfast. Because democracy cannot be compared in any way to any form of dictatorship. The fact that this meeting can hold is because we have a democracy. If it was military rule, we will be called disgruntled elements, we called all kinds of names. And then people say oh, what you guys do is that you are supporting INEC, you are supporting these institutions. And I say yes. if I don’t support these institutions, who will.”
Against the attacks that may hinder the growth of democracy, the democracy Enthusiast, said; “Engagement is important. Engagement with institutions with the purpose of ensuring that those institutions are reformed. And it must be a principled engagement. So my call is that the 2023 election had its challenges, but the positives for those elections outweigh the challenges in every material particular and therefore those institutions that are in the business of strengthening our democracy needs to be encouraged by people who mean well for the country.
“The current attack on the judiciary, the excoriation of INEC in my view, does not portend well for the consolidation of democracy. And we must do all that is necessary to make sure that there are challenges, we deal with those challenges with the aim of improving, not to decimate and destroy confidence in those institutions.
“There is no other place to go to. If people don’t know that judiciary is a part of the electoral process. It is not an invention outside of the electoral process. By the time you have finished all that you have done, the Judiciary will have to sit back and say did you follow the Constitution. Did you follow the Electoral Act. Did you follow the INEC guidelines? If you did not follow it is not an emotional issue. It is not whether you like it or you don’t like it, they will have to make a call.
“And when they made that call. If you don’t like it, there is a rights in some instances there’s a right for appeal. But the reform process is important now because that’s where we are.”
. TheWitness
